I have a '07 NAH as well and had the same problem. Your description is to a tee on what happened to me. My dealer figured out that it was not the key fob at all, but was a mechanism in the brake that was faulty. In other words, the brake must be pressed while the button is pressed. For some reason, my brake was not registered that it was pressed, thus the vehicle would not start. For a while I stomped on the brake and it would work, but it finally just wouldn't start. Bad news, I remember it costing a fair amount to fix ($300-$500). I have a 101,000 miles on my NAH right now. My problem happened around 60K miles. Since it was fixed, I have not had a problem. I still love my car and am getting 40-42 mpg. Good luck!

 

We have the intermittent start problem with our NAH '08 since about 1 year after the purchase. One out of 15 times we can not start the car but it just always used to work after 3 times trying. So we didn't bother bringing it to the dealer. Since 2 years we had some more serious non starters but they would happen rarely until now. Had AAA come to tow but he could fix it and was very aware of the problem.

He went to the cables under the steering wheel from the drivers leg space. And tightened the brake sensor and that was the fix.

4 starts later I encounter the same problem and now just wiggle the cable under the steering wheel and get the car to start.
Not very elegant but we don't want to pay $ for a mistake that so many of those cars have and should be fixed by the manufacturer.
We should get a car count with this problem.

 

^^^
If you can repro a problem where you can get the brake lights to not turn on w/reasonable force on the brake pedal, I think a safety complaint to http://www.safercar.gov/ is in order.

That might force a recall (since that would be legit safety defect) and get this fixed for all of us.

 

I agree. I have an 08 NAH also. Although I don't have the problem, I'd like to see a recall to prevent it.

 

I have an 07 and never had this type of trouble... Thanks for the tip though.

 

Thanks for the link. I just emailed them with the problem. But I don't know if it will account for a safety issue. Because the result is that the car will not start and not that the brakes don't work.

The brakes always work. The problem is just the sensor (or cable hub) that tells the starter that the brake is pressed.

 

That's a primary safety issue... The car manufacturer's are supposed to be able to ensure that a car can limp home... Leaf when the battery is low, limits how fast you can go, not can you move at all. Fuel injection failures, have some sort of limp home mode. There probably are other related things.

 

But, if the brake lights don't come on (when brake pedal is pressed w/a moderate amount of force), that's definitely a safety issue. Someone could rear end you.

If you can repro that problem, you'd have a legit safety defect.

 

I reported it over a year ago. I heard nothing back.

The replacement of the brake assembly fixed it finally after several brake switch adjustments by the techs.

I only figured out the problem after following the car home one night and noticing that the brake lights were not working (a real safety problem).

There is a technical service bulletin: TSB# is NTB10-139 that describes the problem and the fix: $430 in April 2011 for me and not covered by my warranty.

 

I called and reported the starting problem to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the lady had no other cases of the same problem. She said it will be sent to their investigative group.
But on this forum only 2 people reported this. That is too few for a recall.

I want to point out again that otherwise we love the car.

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NHTSA safety hotline at 1-888-DASH-2-DOT. Complaints can also be waged online at www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ (the NHTSA's website) or by filing a petition.